Written Answers Tuesday 18 January 2011

Scottish Executive

Education

Ken Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-6265 by Adam Ingram on 27 November 2007, what progress has been made on improving (a) services for children with additional support needs and (b) continuing professional development for every teacher.

Adam Ingram: The Scottish Government has amended the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 to create a stronger system for supporting children’s learning. The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2009 commenced on 14 November 2010. The Scottish Government has also published a revised code of practice: supporting children’s learning which explains the duties on education authorities and other agencies to identify, assess and meet the additional support needs of children and young people.

  Local authorities, as the employers of teachers, are responsible for ensuring that relevant and high quality continuing professional development opportunities are available that enable their staff to help achieve better outcomes for all children and young people, including those who need additional support. The Scottish Government has supported that responsibility in a number of ways, including through the development of the Framework for Inclusion, which underpins teacher education and professional development in this area.

Education

Ken Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made in relation to reviewing the implementation of mainstreaming children with additional support needs.

Adam Ingram: Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education published a review on the implementation of the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 in November 2007. The Scottish Government subsequently introduced legislation to strengthen the 2004 act and the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2009 commenced on 14 November 2010. A revised code of practice – supporting children’s learning was published in August 2010.

Health

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether there has been a reduction in the national HEAT 3 target of 19,493 children aged 5 to 15 to complete a healthy weight programme and, if so, for what reason and what the new target is.

Shona Robison: The HEAT 3 child healthy weight target was a development target. Final target numbers were agreed with boards as part of the 2010-11 local delivery plan sign-off process. The final target agreed in March 2010 was 6,317 completed interventions with the majority (4,453) being delivered in the third year of the target. We are in the process of agreeing the target for the next three years of 4,500, 5,000 and 5,500 interventions, which will result in 15,000 children completing a healthy weight intervention over the three-year period.

Ministerial Travel

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many journeys have been undertaken by (a) the First Minister and (b) each cabinet secretary in each financial year since 2007, broken down by mode of transport.

John Swinney: Information relating to use of the Government Car Service and ministerial rail travel covering 2007 to 2010 has been pro-actively published and can be found on the Scottish Government website at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/14944 .

  We are in the process of gathering and collating further ministerial travel information. This will be published on the Scottish Government website in due course.

Police

Elaine Smith (Coatbridge and Chryston) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many police officers were stationed on the (a) M80, (b) M8 and (c) M73 on the evening of 6 December 2010.

Kenny MacAskill: A total of 136 officers were deployed on these roads during this period.

  A unit within Strathclyde Police was established on the morning of 6 December 2010 to help co-ordinate road policing resources. In the region of 40 road policing officers were deployed during each of the early and late shifts.

  Central Scotland Police dealt with situations on both the M876 and M80 where they had officers working between both locations. In total they had 16 officers assisted by four officers from the Scottish Police College.

  Lothian and Borders Police deployed 36 police officers to the M8 on the evening of 6 December 2010. These figures represent the resources from both back shift and night shift personnel provided by both road policing and beat officers, the majority of whom were deployed at the various junctions on the M8 within the force area. These junctions were staffed as part of the operation that evening to direct the majority of vehicles off the motorway by the nearest junction and then onto other routes in order to continue their journey.

Police

Elaine Smith (Coatbridge and Chryston) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many police vehicles were stationed on the (a) M80, (b) M8 and (c) M73 on the evening of 6 December 2010.

Kenny MacAskill: A total of 44 vehicles were used in this period.

  A unit within Strathclyde Police was established on the morning of 6 December 2010 to help co-ordinate road policing resources. A total of 16 4x4 vehicles were used as part of this.

  Within Central Scotland Police area the M80 was closed at a point north of Castlecarry. In total they had eight vehicles assisted by two vehicles from the Scottish Police College.

  In Lothian and Borders Police area the M8 westbound was closed from Junction 1 (Hermiston Gate) to Harthill Services. Eighteen police vehicles were used by this force.